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Topical Stamp Collecting: Bhudda and Bhuddism on Postage Stamps

“Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for peoplewill hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.”

Buddha

India - Bhuddist stamps- Bhudda Souvenir sheet

Reflecting upon above Bhudda’s quote, it prompted me to research some “virtual” stamps on the subject. I’ve found quite a few and thought it would be a great idea to share some of them here with you, as well as a great article featured on the mysinchew.com news site about Stamp collector Shu Zhonghan, whose topical stamp collecting passion is all about Bhudda and Bhuddism. Enjoy!

A Buddhist and stamps collector has been integrating his faith with his interest as he has a special preference for collecting stamps with Buddhism theme.

Shu Zhonghan has sorted out thousands of the stamps he collected according to the themes such as the Four Great Bodhisattvas, the Four Great Buddhist Mountains, Buddhist figures and the biography of Gautama Buddha. Each of the theme has lots of stories to tell.

The stamps he collected are from around the world such as China, Japan, Korea, India, Thailand and even Muslim countries which possess different Buddhist cultures.

To enhance the value of appreciation of the stamps, he has put them with envelopes, pictures and postcards as embellishments or explanatory notes. It has at the same time enhanced the value of artistic for his collection.

He does not only collect them in stamp albums but he also shows them to the public through exhibitions .He also takes the opportunity to tell his guests Buddhist stories.

Shu has been a Buddhist since young and he started collecting stamps since teen age. At that time, his attention was drawn by a Buddhist stamp on an envelope sent by his relative from China.

At that time, stamp collecting experts suggested that it would be an advantage to collect stamps based on a particular theme instead of collecting a wide-variety of stamps. Therefore he has focused on only Buddhist stamps since then as he is a Buddhist.

He indicated that among thousands of the stamps, it was indeed hard to categorize them. However, with the assistance of his three daughters, he was able to get relevant information for each of the theme.

According to him, as he is a preacher, he had organized two stamp exhibitions to promote Buddhism to the public and they received great responses from the public.

Nevertheless, he stressed that according to the national standards, there were some rules to be followed while collecting stamps such as a stamp must have more pictures and less text and three stories to be told on a piece of paper. He said that his collection has not met the requirements yet.

I want to remind you about Buddha’s greatest sermon where he simply held up a flower and the entire audience was taken in awe at his recognition of the entire universe; all of life, the law of life upon which the growth of living cells is founded.

This love that is guiding the universe is right where you are right now. It is the center of every cell in your body. Every cell of your body has a trinity at work in it. A neutron, an electron, all of life is calling and beckoning you and present for you right now.

There is a love that is presencing in your life right now. You can count on it. You can call upon it. You can listen to it and you can know it.